Top 10 Yankee Catchers

Old-Timers Day, 1976. Left to right:

Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard and Thurman Munson.

This list will have considerably fewer Honorable Mentions than that of the Top 10 Yankee Pitchers. And that's a good thing, since it reflects the luck and longevity the Yankees have had with their catchers.

Honorable Mention: Pat Collins, 1926-28. Just as the 1990s Chicago Bulls were the weakest at the most important position in basketball, center (although not that weak, as Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley were good, just not sensational), so, to, were the 1926, 1927 and 1928 Yankees, often called the greatest team in baseball history, weakest at the most important position: Catcher.

Collins, Benny Bengough and Mike Gazella were the catchers who bridged the gap between Wally Schang, who got old in 1925, and Bill Dickey, who wasn't ready to take over as the starter until 1929. Collins, who came from Sweet Springs in western Missouri, played the most of them.

Honorable Mention: Aaron Robinson, 1943-47. Here's a neat little trivia question: Who wore Number 8 on the Yankees between Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra? Here's another: Which Robinson played on the winning side of the 1947 World Series? Not Jackie. The answer to both is Aaron Robinson.

He came up for 1 game in 1943, then back up to become the starter in late 1945. In 1946, he batted .297 with 16 homers and 64 RBIs in only 100 games. But he tailed off in 1947, and it was clear that Yogi was the catcher of the future, so he was traded. But he was the starting catcher on a Yankee World Series winner, and, so far, there's been only 8 other human beings, living or dead, who could truthfully say that.

Honorable Mention: Brian McCann, 2014-present. He's played just 2 seasons with the Yankees, with 49 home runs and 169 RBIs, but a .232 batting average and an OPS+ of just 101. Good guy, good power, good defensive catcher, but not yet one of the Top 10 Yankee Catchers.

10. Jake Gibbs, 1962-71. The best quarterback the University of Mississippi has ever had -- aside from those named Manning -- he chose baseball because he could make more money. But he didn't get more than a cup of coffee in the majors until 1966, and was only the starter in '67 and '68.

His hitting stats aren't really worth mentioning. He was there mainly for his defense. He probably would have been better off if he'd gone to the NFL -- or the AFL, which was a possibility at the time. (He was drafted by the NFL's Cleveland Browns and the AFL's Houston Oilers.) Still, somebody has to round out the Top 10. Gibbs wore Number 41.

9. Rick Cerone, on and off 3 times 1980-90. The Newark native was brought in from the Toronto Blue Jays for Chris Chambliss in order to replace Thurman Munson, and helped the Yankees win the AL East in 1980 (he actually finished 7th in the MVP voting) and the Pennant in '81. But that was it, and he never again had more than 300 plate appearances in a season. His main number was 10.

I remember listening to Max Kinkel's All Night Radio show on WCBS-FM one night in 1987 (it was a music show, but he talked about sports a lot), and he was talking to someone about the Yankees, ripping Mark Salas, saying, "To me, Salas just could not call a game." The caller said that Cerone, then in his 2nd go-around, could, and Max said, "Well, Cerone can call a game, but Cerone can't throw the ball!" Sad, but true.

After his playing career, which also included a stopover with the Mets, Cerone, a Newark native and a graduate of Seton Hall University, was one of the founders of the reborn Newark Bears minor-league team.

8. Joe Girardi, 1996-99. Speaking of the Mets, as we all know, in nearly 54 seasons, no Met pitcher has ever thrown a no-hitter. (Don't tell me Johan Santana did: That was a fraud, and you know it.) But a few Mets-to-be and lots of former Mets have. Girardi caught 2 such no-hitters, by Dwight Gooden on May 14, 1996 and a perfect game by David Cone on July 18, 1999.

The Peoria, Illinois native was one of the cornerstones of the Yanks' 1996 revival, including a triple off Greg Maddux that started a 3-run rally that won Game 6 of the World Series and the Series itself. Considering that he was known for his defense, usually capable of 40-50 RBI per year but no more than that, and that he was built like the stereotypical old-time catcher and not expected to run well (though he did steal 13 bases in '96), I said at the time that hitting a triple off Maddux in the World Series was the baseball equivalent of Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson.

He guided the Yanks' pitching staff until Jorge Posada was ready, and it surprised no one when he became a big-league manager. He kept a Florida Marlins team starved of payroll near .500 most of the 2006 season, got the NL Manager of the Year award, and got fired for his trouble. Named Yankee manager in 2008, he led them to the 2009 World Championship.

He started off wearing Number 45, then switched to 25 when Cecil Fielder arrived. When he was hired as manager, he wore 27 to remind the team of its goal of a 27th World Championship. He led them there. He then switched to 28, but he's been stuck on it, now into a 7th season. As much as anything else, this is due to his pitching mismanagement. Let's hope that 2016 is the year he throws away the binder and starts using his eyes to determine whether a pitcher should stay in or be relieved.

7. Mike Stanley, 1992-95. He grew up in Fort Lauderdale, where the Yankees then had their spring training camp. At first, it looked like he was going to be a big part of the Yanks' 1990s revival, batting .305 with 24 homers and 85 RBIs for the 1993 squad that hung close to the Blue Jays until mid-September. He hit .300 again in strike-shortened '94, and made the All-Star Team in '95.

But he was granted free agency, and the Yankees didn't lift a finger to re-sign him, a move that left some Yankee Fans (like me) quite puzzled, and some very angry. The Red Sox jumped at the chance, and he gave them a very solid season and much of another before a rare trade between the teams briefly brought him back in 1997. (The trade was ultimately a wash, the only other player worth mentioning being Tony Armas Jr., who the Sox soon put in the trade that brought in Pedro Martinez from the Montreal Expos.)

The Yanks may have known what they were doing, though: They got Girardi, they had Posada on the way up, and while Stanley was still productive until 2000 (he then retired at age 37), Girardi was a little younger, Posada considerably so.

6. Wally Schang, 1921-25. He came from the Buffalo area, and came up with the Philadelphia Athletics in time to play in the 1913 and '14 World Series, winning the former. But Connie Mack's breakup of his dynasty sent him to the Red Sox in 1917, where he won another Series in 1918. Harry Frazee's breakup of his dynasty meant that Schang was one of those who, in large measure, made the 1921-28 Yankees an extension of the 1912-18 Red Sox.

He helped the Yankees win their 1st 3 Pennants and their 1st World Series in 1923. He batted .300 6 times, but only twice with the Yankees. Trading him to the St. Louis Browns in 1926 looks like a bad trade, but the Yanks got a pretty good pitcher for him, George Mogridge.

Schang wrapped up his career with the Detroit Tigers in 1931, and that's the only season that he wore a uniform number. Interestingly, it was the number that Bill Dickey was already making synonymous with Yankee catchers, 8.

5. Elston Howard, 1955-67. Like the man he replaced behind the plate, he was from St. Louis. Why is he so low on this list? Actually, due to Yogi already being there, Elston, the 1st black Yankee, was mainly the Yankees' starting left fielder until 1959.

But then he became the best catcher in the game. He was the 1st black man to win the AL's MVP award, in 1963 -- this after several had won it in the NL. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were hurt much of that season, and Elston carried that team, helping Whitey Ford to win 24 games and young Jim Bouton to win 21.

With the Yankee dynasty having collapsed, Elston was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1967, and helped them win their "Impossible Dream" Pennant. It's a very strange thing to look at that World Series highlight film and see Ellie in a Red Sox uniform, standing with Roger Maris in a Cardinal uniform.

In 1969, he returned to the Yankees as the AL's 1st black coach. His death due to a heart ailment in 1980 probably prevented him, at the rate George Steinbrenner was hiring and firing, from becoming New York's 1st black manager, a distinction that would later go to Willie Randolph with the Mets. The Yankees have still never had a black manager, but they retired Ellie's Number 32 and dedicated a Plaque to him in Monument Park.

4. Thurman Munson, 1969-79. In 1970, his first full season, he won the AL's Rookie of the Year. In 1976, he won the MVP. Thanks to Derek Jeter, the 1996 ROY, having been robbed of the MVP in both 1999 and 2009, and possibly also in 2006, Thurman remains the only Yankee ever to win both of those awards. (There was no ROY until 1947, denying guys like Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio, and Mantle's 1st season was troubled.)

In spite of injury after injury, the first man trusted with the Yankees' official Captaincy since Lou Gehrig put together 3 straight seasons, 1975-77, of at least a .300 batting average and 100 RBIs. That streak ended in '78, but he led the team to its 3rd straight Pennant and back-to-back World Championships.

The thing I love the most about Thurman is that, at the moment when the Yankees most needed a home run from him, he hit the longest home run of his career. It was Game 3 of the '78 ALCS, bottom of the 8th, trailing 4-3 to the Kansas City Royals, and Doug Bird hung a curveball, and Thurman sent it 470 feet into Monument Park.

Sadly, the next person enshrined in Monument Park would be Thurman himself, the victim of a plane crash on August 2, 1979. George Steinbrenner, his fellow native of the Cleveland area, immediately ordered the retirement of his Number 15 (which had also been worn by Yankee greats Red Ruffing, Tommy Henrich and Tom Tresh), and a year later his Plaque was ready.

3. Jorge Posada, 1995-2011. There are those who say that Posada wasn't a very good catcher. Many of those will say that Mike Piazza of the Mets and Jason Varitek of the Red Sox were better. These people are fools.

A Puerto Rico native of Cuban descent, Jorge is a legend. He caught David Wells' perfect game on May 17, 1998. He hit from both sides of the plate with power. He hit home runs in World Series games. His double ended the big 3-run rally that tied up Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS and set up Aaron Boone's Pennant-winning homer. He's raised a bundle of money for charity. And he's married to Laura Posada. This last factor cannot be discounted in discussing Jorge's greatness.

He has his Plaque in Monument Park, and his Number 20 has been retired. Sorry, Bucky Dent.

2. Bill Dickey, 1928-46. The man from northeastern Louisiana ook the title of "greatest catcher ever" away from Mickey Cochrane, and was, unusually for a catcher, one of the 10 best hitters in baseball for much of his career. He was not on the roster of the 1928 World Series, but helped the Yankees win 8 Pennants (1932, '36, '37, '38, '39, '41, '42 and '43) and 7 World Series (losing only in '42).

He was Lou Gehrig's best friend on the team, and played himself in the film The Pride of the Yankees. (So did Yankee teammates Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel and Mark Koenig, and sportscaster Bill Stern.) That scene where a teammate questions Gehrig's effort as the disease that will later bear his name is overtaking him, and Dickey punches the guy out? That really happened.

After Gehrig's illness-forced retirement in 1939, there was no official Yankee Captain until Munson, 37 years later. But Dickey was very much an unofficial captain, leading the Yankees to their 106-win season in '39, the Joe DiMaggio streak season of '41, and taking them to the '43 title when several players, including DiMaggio, Tommy Henrich and Phil Rizzuto, were off fighting World War II. (Dickey himself went into the service for the next 2 seasons.)

He came back in '46, briefly replaced Joe McCarthy as manager, and was one of Casey Stengel's coaches from 1949 to '60. His greatest accomplishment may actually have been making Yogi Berra an even better catcher than himself: As Yogi said, "Bill Dickey is learning me all his experiences."

1. Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, 1946-63. In 1944 and '45, the U.S. Navy had, arguably, the 3 greatest catchers in baseball history: Cochrane, whose playing career was over; Dickey, who had a little baseball left in him; and Yogi, who was on one of the boats during the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944, and became the only man to be a veteran of both D-Day and Major League Baseball.

It's hard to look at Dickey's offensive stats and say that Yogi was better, but Dickey played in a hitter-friendly era, while Yogi played in a pitcher-friendly era. Yogi won 3 AL MVPs, in 1951, '54 and '55. Somebody once argued that, due to his hitting and his handling of a pitching staff that was constantly changing and yet constantly winning, Yogi might be the most valuable player the Yankees have ever had.

And, like Dickey, Yogi became sort of an unofficial captain, particularly from 1956, when Rizzuto was unceremoniously and callously released, and 1961, when new manager Ralph Houk began to insist that Mantle take more of a leadership role -- not as a slap against Yogi, but more in order to make Mickey finish growing up, and it wasn't entirely a fool's errand.

Nobody won more Pennants than Yogi: 14 (1947, '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '55, '56, '57, '58, '60, '61, '62, '63 and '64). Nobody won more World Series: 10 (1947, '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '56, '58, '61 and '62 -- in all of sports, only Bill Russell in basketball and Henri Richard in hockey have 11). He still holds the records for most World Series games, at-bats and hits.

In 1972, Yogi was elected to the Hall of Fame. Dickey had been elected in 1955. Upon Yogi's election, the Yankees retired Number 8 for both men. (Dickey wore 33 as a coach while Yogi was the catcher.) In 1988, both men were awarded Plaques in Monument Park.

And Yogi was a good manager: He got the Yankees to the 1964 Pennant, and the Mets to the 1973 Pennant. Not only did he have to make both teams come from behind in the process, but it made him the only manager ever to take both teams to the World Series. (I will Broadway Joe Namath guarantee you that there will never be another in my lifetime.) He lost in Game 7 both times, but there's no shame in losing a World Series to Bob Gibson and Lou Brock -- or to Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter, for that matter.

Today, people my age and younger know Yogi only as an elder statesman of baseball and as the guy who said funny things, often in TV commercials. They're not old enough to remember him as a manager, let alone as a player. But he was one of the true greats of the game, well before he became known for his "Yogi-isms."

As the man himself might have said, He was a living legend, until he wasn't anymore. He's still one of the game's greatest legends, although he never would have told you so himself. He was a special guy, in so many ways.

The photo at top -- Dickey, Berra (then a coach), Howard (ditto) and Munson (then the starting catcher) -- was taken on Old-Timers' Day 1977.

How Long It's Been: The Yankees Won a Pennant Without the "Core Four"

Jorge Posada has retired. Mariano Rivera missed most of this season, and will be back for 1 more season at most. Derek Jeter is injured for the rest of the postseason. The only one of the 1996-2003 "Core Four" who has made any real contribution in the 1st 2 games of the 2012 American League Championship Series is Andy Pettitte -- which is ironic, since he's already left the Yankees twice (2003-04 and 2010-11), and come back.

With them, the Yankees won AL Pennants in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2009. Something they almost certainly will not do in 2012.

Without them, the Yankees haven't won a Pennant since October 15, 1981. On that night, they completed a 3-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics, managed by once-and-future Yankee manager Billy Martin, at the Oakland Coliseum. The clincher was a 4-0 Yankee win, but was only 1-0 going into the 9th inning, so Dave Righetti, that night's Yankee starter, needed to pitch well, and he did. Willie Randolph hit a home run, and also caught a looper for the final out behind 2nd base.

October 15, 1981: 32 years ago today.  How long has that been?

*

We didn't know it yet, but the Yankees were at the end of the 1st George Steinbrenner dynasty that began to be built in 1973, won the Pennant in 1976, won the World Series in 1977 and 1978, and won the AL Eastern Division in 1980.

From the 1976-78 teams, Thurman Munson was already dead. Catfish Hunter and Roy White were retired. Chris Chambliss, Mickey Rivers, Ed Figueroa and Sparky Lyle had been traded. So had Fred "Chicken" Stanley, who was across the field in the A's dugout with Billy. Oscar Gamble, Rudy May, and manager Bob Lemon had left and returned. So had Bobby Murcer, if you want to extend it back to 1974. Randolph, Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles, Lou Piniella, Bucky Dent, Ron Guidry and Rich "Goose" Gossage remained. Righetti, Tommy John, Ron Davis, Rick Cerone, Bob Watson and Jerry Mumphrey had been added.

In spite of the Pennant, the Yankees averaged only 15,804 fans per home game at the original Yankee Stadium. This was partly due to the South Bronx having deteriorated into an urban nightmare -- the Paul Newman cop drama Fort Apache, The Bronx was released in February of that year. Nobody wanted to go to The Bronx -- unless that's where your drug dealer wanted to meet and you really, really needed a fix.

It had been an awful regression for New York City, and it could be seen in film: From the style and sophistication of Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961, to the funky seediness of Midnight Cowboy in 1969, to the desolation of Taxi Driver in 1976, to Fort Apache, The Bronx in 1981.

Two recent period pieces, the TV show Life On Mars (set in 1973) and the miniseries The Bronx Is Burning (about 1976-77 in New York, including the Yankees, the Mayoral election and the hunt for the Son of Sam), did not exaggerate. I remember: It really was that bad, no matter how much Mayor Ed Koch and Governor Hugh Carey tried to talk the City up, no matter how much people in tourism commercials sang, "I Love New York." (That campaign was more for the State than the City, anyway: One even had a guy obviously in a rural area, possibly the Catskills or the Finger Lakes, saying, "I live in Brooklyn, but I love New York!")

But the low attendance was also partly due to the baseball strike, which split the season into 2 halves. The teams that were in 1st place in their Divisions when the strike began -- the Yankees, the A's in the AL West, the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the AL West -- were guaranteed spots in the Playoffs, and thus had nothing to play for when the season resumed. So none of them won the 2nd half Division titles: These were won by the Milwaukee Brewers, the Kansas City Royals, the Montreal Expos and the Houston Astros.

Thus began the 1st-ever Division Series, and those wouldn't happen again until the 3-divisions-and-wild-card setup began in 1995 (after meaning for it to begin in 1994, but another strike wiped that out). The Yankees won the 1st 2 games in Milwaukee, but the Brewers took the next 2 in The Bronx.

After Game 4, Steinbrenner barged into the locker room and went on a tirade, yelling at the players, saying they were disgracing the Yankee uniform, the Yankee tradition, the City of New York and Yankee Fans everywhere.  Murcer tried to tell him, "Now is not the time, George." George yelled, "It is the time, goddamn it!" and went on, until finally Cerone stood up, and, like a Newark boss, pointed his finger at The Boss, and said, "Fuck you, George!" and walked out. The Yankees won Game 5, sparked by back-to-back home runs by Reggie and Gamble, and another homer by, of course, Cerone.

The A's beat the Royals, the Expos beat the Phils, and the Dodgers beat the Astros. In the NLCS, Rick Monday's 9th-inning homer won the decisive Game 5 in Montreal, and the Dodgers won the Pennant. The Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals franchise hasn't been that close to a Pennant since.

Then came the World Series. A banner hung at Yankee Stadium during Game 1 emphasized the fact that the Yankees had beaten the Dodgers in '77 and '78: "DON'T THE DODGERS EVER LEARN?" They did: Although the Yankees won Games 1 and 2 in New York, the Dodgers took the next 4, and won their 1st World Championship since 1963. I was nearly 12 years old, and this Yankee postseason defeat still sticks in my craw more than most of the 2001-12 October losses.

Rivera was 11 years old, Posada 10, Pettitte 9, Jeter 7, Alex Rodriguez and R.A. Dickey 6, David Ortiz 5, Jimmy Rollins nearly 3, Albert Pujols nearly 2, and Robinson Cano, David Wright, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander weren't born yet.

Baseball legends Satchel Paige, Stan Coveleski, Waite Hoyt, Joe Cronin, Smoky Joe Wood, Red Ruffing, Ted Lyons and Hank Greenberg were still alive.

There had never been a Major League Baseball game in Florida or in the Rocky Mountain States. The San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays had never made the Playoffs. The Padres, Rangers, Blue Jays, the aforementioned Brewers and Astros, and the team then known as the California Angels had never won a Pennant. The Atlanta Braves hadn't won a Pennant since they were still in Milwaukee. The Blue Jays, the Braves since moving to Atlanta, the aforementioned Royals, the San Francisco Giants since they were still in New York, the Minnesota Twins since they were the Washington Senators all the way back in 1924, the Boston Red Sox since 1918, and the Chicago White Sox since 1917 had not won the World Series. All of those facts are no longer true.

Only 6 teams are still using the same ballparks they were using in 1981: The 2 Los Angeles-area teams, the Red Sox, the Royals, the A's and the Chicago Cubs. Only 7 NFL teams (Buffalo, Green Bay, Kansas City, New Orleans, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco), 2 NBA teams (the Knicks and the Golden State Warriors), and 4 NHL teams (the Rangers, the Islanders, the Detroit Red Wings and the Edmonton Oilers) are using the same venues they were using in October 1981. Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Arena have all been replaced.

There was an NFL team in Baltimore, but it was the Colts, not the Ravens. There was one in St. Louis, but it was the Cardinals, not the Rams. There was one in Houston, but it was the Oilers, not the Texans. The NFL was still a League where the high-profile teams were the Oakland Raiders, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Miami Dolphins and the Dallas Cowboys, but the San Francisco 49ers were about to begin their dynasty.

The Philadelphia Phillies were defending World Champions. The Oakland Raiders had won the most recent Super Bowl. The Boston Celtics were defending NBA Champions, having beaten the Houston Rockets in the Finals. The Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers would be back, however. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Julius "Dr. J" Erving were the big names. Michael Jordan was about to play his 1st game at the University of North Carolina. The Knicks and Nets were both nondescript teams.

The New York Islanders were in the middle of their Stanley Cup dynasty (stop laughing), and the Edmonton Oilers of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier hadn't won any yet. The Rangers were an aging team in transition, and the Devils were still the NHL version of the Colorado Rockies. The heavyweight champion of the world was Larry Holmes.

Bobby Carpenter of the Boston suburb of Needham, Massachusetts played his 1st NHL game a few days earlier, becoming the 1st U.S. hockey player to go directly from high school to the NHL, and both scored a goal and collected an assist for the Washington Capitals, who lost to the Buffalo Sabres anyway.

"The Wave" -- or, as it's known in Europe, since most people there first saw it on TV during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, "The Mexican Wave" -- was first noticed nationwide on the day in question. "Krazy George" Henderson claims to have invented it at an NHL game in Edmonton a year earlier. He led it during the 7th Inning Stretch of Game 3 of the 1981 ALCS. Robb Weller, later a co-host of Entertainment Tonight, claimed he invented it at the University of Washington, during their October 31, 1981 game against Stanford. But that was 2 weeks after Krazy George's nationally televised demonstration, so he's lying.

Current Yankee manager Joe Girardi was in high school in Peoria, Illinois. Terry Collins of the Mets had just finished his 1st managing job, with the Lodi Dodgers of the Class A California League. Tom Coughlin of the Giants was the quarterbacks coach at Boston College. Mike Woodson wasn't coaching the Knicks, he was playing for them. Rex Ryan of the Jets was attending Southwestern Oklahoma State University. John Tortorella of the Rangers was attending the University of Maine. Avery Johnson of the Nets was in high school in New Orleans, Jack Capuano of the Islanders in Kent, Connecticut. Peter DeBoer of the Devils was in junior high school in Dunnville, Ontario.

The Olympic Games have since been held in America 3 times, in Canada twice, and once each in Bosnia, Korea, France, Spain, Norway, Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, China and Britain. The World Cup has since been held in America, Spain, Mexico, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, Germany and South Africa.

There were then 26 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The President of the United States was Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush was his Vice President. Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, their wives, and the widows of Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were all still alive.

Bill Clinton was out of office, having been defeated for re-election as Governor of Arkansas the year before -- but was already planning one of his occasional comebacks. George W. Bush was running Arbusto Energy -- running it into the ground. Barack Obama had just transferred from Occidental College in Los Angeles to Columbia University in New York. Mitt Romney was a vice president with Bain Capital. None of the Justices then on the U.S. Supreme Court are still on it.

The Governor of the State of New York was Hugh Carey, the Mayor of the City of New York was Ed Koch, and the Governor of New Jersey was Brendan Byrne, with Tom Kean and Jim Florio running to replace him. Kean would win the closest election in the office's history. Eight years later, Florio would try again, and win in a landslide. Andrew Cuomo was in law school, and was helping his father, then Lieutenant Governor Mario Cuomo, set up his run for Governor the next year. Mike Bloomberg had just been fired from brokerage firm Salomon Brothers, and things weren't looking good for him.

The Nobel Peace Prize was about to be awarded to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Benedict XVI, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, was the Archbishop of Munich. The Prime Minister of Canada was Pierre Trudeau, and of Britain, Margaret Thatcher. The monarch of both nations was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed. There have since been 5 Presidents of the United States, 5 Prime Ministers of Britain and 2 Popes.

There were still living veterans of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Campaign, the Boxer Rebellion, the Boer War, the Potemkin Mutiny, the Russo-Japanese War and the Mexican Revolution.

Aston Villa of Birmingham, the West Midlands, had won the Football League for the 1st time in 71 years (still their only title in the last 112 years). Liverpool FC had won the European Cup. In the season now in progress, they would switch. Tottenham Hotspur were in the middle of back-to-back FA Cup wins; his was a rare period when they were definitively better than the real team in North London, Arsenal.

James Clavell published Noble House, Frank Herbert God Emperor of Dune, John Irving The Hotel New Hampshire, Gabriel Garcia Marquez Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Toni Morrison Tar Baby, Martin Cruz Smith Gorky Park, Paul Theroux The Mosquito Coast, and Joseph Wambaugh The Glitter Dome.

John Gardner restarted the James Bond novels, which had been exhausted following the last unpublished stories of the character's creator Ian Fleming, with Licence Renewed. Thomas Harris published Red Dragon, which introduced the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. George R.R. Martin published Windhaven, deftly using science fiction and a restart of technology to meld the future with the past on a distant planet occupied by the descendants of Earthmen. J.K. Rowling was in high school in Tutshill, Gloucestershire, England.

No one had yet heard of Celie Harris, Kinsey Millhone, Jack Ryan, Forrest Gump, John McClane, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Bella Swan, Lisbeth Salander or Katniss Everdeen.

Major films released in the middle of Autumn 1981 included My Dinner with Andre, All the Marbles, Looker, Halloween II, Time Bandits and The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper. Earlier in the year, Roger Moore had played James Bond in For Your Eyes Only, and Christopher Reeve had starred in Superman II. Batman was still in the interregnum between Adam West and Michael Keaton; the best Batfans could do was the comic books and Olan Soule's voiceover in the Saturday morning cartoon Super Friends. Peter Davison had recently become the Fifth Doctor.

In television, the previous spring's Dallas cliffhanger was resolved: J.R. Ewing had not gotten revenge on his sister-in-law/former mistress/baby mama Kristin Shepard for shooting him a year earlier. He didn't push her over the railing and into the pool to her death; she fell because she had a drug overdose.

Luke Spencer and Laura Webber were about to get married on General Hospital. Chuck Woolery was about to leave his post as host of Wheel of Fortune, handing it over to Pat Sajak. And both turned out to be right-wing maniacs, a fact they kept hidden even during the Reagan Revolution.

Entertainment Tonight, Lee Majors' post-Six Million Dollar Man series The Fall Guy, Tony Randall's post-Odd Couple series Love, Sidney, Nell Carter's Gimme a Break, Simon & Simon and Falcon Crest all debuted, or soon would, in the TV season that had just begun. So did the U.S. version of the cartoon The Smurfs, and new cartoons featuring comic book characters Captain Marvel (a.k.a. "Shazam!") and Spider-Man. Charlie's Angels, The Waltons and Eight Is Enough had recently aired their final first-run episodes.

In the week in question, the following panelists were on Match Game: Love Boat bartender Ted Lange, regular Brett Somers, regular Charles Nelson Reilly, actress Audrey Landers, former M*A*S*H star McLean Stevenson, and actress Edie McClurg.

Robert Kardashian was working in the music business. He was married to the former Kris Houghton. Their daughter Kim had been born almost exactly a year before. Bruce Jenner was still an actor, and not winning any medals for it.

The Number 1 song in America was "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)," by Christopher Cross, from the Dudley Moore film Arthur that came out in the preceding Summer. MTV had gone on the air at that time. Were they actually airing music at the time? Yes. Was it good music? For the most part, no.

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel had a reunion concert in front of half a million people in Central Park. Prince released his album Controversy, and got booed off the stage at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, as the opening act on the Rolling Stones' tour for their album Tattoo You.

In the course of 1981, The Buzzcocks, Steely Dan and the Bay City Rollers broke up. 10,000 Maniacs, Anthrax, The Bangles, The Blow Monkeys, The Beastie Boys, The Butthole Surfers, Culture Club (these last 2 definitely not to be confused with each other), Katrina and the Waves, Metallica, Ministry, Mötley Crüe, Pet Shop Boys, Queensrÿche, Patti Smyth's band Scandal, Slayer, Sonic Youth and Suicidal Tendencies all formed.

George Harrison released "All Those Years Ago," his tribute to John Lennon, who had been killed nearly a year earlier. Bob Dylan was in his Christian rock phase. Michael Jackson was following Off the Wall up with writing the songs that would go on Thriller. Priscilla Presley had taken over Elvis Presley Enterprises, and made Elvis more money than he ever had while he was alive. Frank Sinatra just kept on touring.

Inflation has been such that what $1.00 would buy then, $2.48 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp was 18 cents, and a New York Subway token was 75 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.35, a cup of coffee $1.04, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $2.00, a movie ticket $2.75, a new car $5,743, and a new house $83,700. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 851.69.

The tallest building in the world was the Sears Tower in Chicago. Desktop computers and mobile telephones had been developed, but they were still very bulky and very slow. Nordic Mobile Telephone set up the 1st cellular telephone system, in Sweden. There was not much of an Internet. The 1st space shuttle, Columbia, had been launched earlier in the year. The Atari VCS (later renamed the Atari 2600) and the Mattel Intellivision were battling it out to be the leading home video game system.

There were heart transplants, liver transplants and lung transplants, and artificial kidneys, but the 1st artificial hearts wouldn't be tried until the next year. The birth control pill was long-established, but there was, as yet, no Viagra.

In the mid-Autumn of 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by Islamic militants, beginning the 31-year dictatorship of the man who had been his Vice President, Hosni Mubarak. For a long time, Mubarak seemed like an enlightened leader and an ally to America, but eventually the truth came out. Moshe Dayan, a leading figure in early Israeli history, also died, but of complications of cancer.

The hunger strike at Maze Prison in Northern Ireland was ended. The last Triumph TR7 rolled off the assembly line. France abolished capital punishment, and developed their first high-speed rail system, the TGV. The Central American colony of British Honduras gained its independence, becoming the independent nation of Belize, remaining in the British Commonwealth. So did the newly-independent nation of Antigua & Barbuda. The Sydney Tower opened in Australia.

In America, Sandra Day O'Connor was confirmed and sworn in as the 1st female Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Reverend Sun Myung Moon was indicted for tax evasion, a charge on which he would be convicted and serve 18 months in prison. The Boeing 767 went into service. And John Shoecroft and Fred Gorrell flew Super Chicken III from Costa Mesa, California to Blackbeard Island, Georgia. The 55-hour-25-minute trip was the 1st nonstop crossing of America by hot-air balloon.

In the Autumn of 1981, songwriter Harry Warren, and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Freddie Lindstrom, and legendary Liverpool Football Club manager Bill Shankly died. Alexis Bledel, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Serena Williams were born.

October 16, 1981. The New York Yankees won a Pennant. And Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada had nothing to do with it.

From here on out, the 2012 postseason will only involve Pettitte -- and then only if the Yankees can somehow get this series to a Game 5.

I'm not optimistic. The Yankees' record without Numbers 2, 20, 42 and 46 has not been good since the Fall of '81.

Top 10 Yankee Catchers

Talk going around spring training that if the St. Louis Cardinals don't give Albert Pujols a contract extension by noon tomorrow, he'll test the free-agent market at the end of the season.

Pujols has been the face of the franchise the last 10 years, lifting them out of the cloud of Mark McGwire. As far as anyone knows, he's clean. He gives all the appearance of being a good guy. And he has hit like hell. By the time he's done, he can give earlier Card legends Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial, and also Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, a run for their money for the title of greatest offensive player in National League history. (Barry Bonds, of course, is ineligible; and even if McGwire's stats were clean, he was only in the NL for 4 years and change.)

Cardinal owner Bill DeWitt Jr. maybe be a filthy rich Republican campaign contributor, but that doesn't mean he's dumb. He's not going to let Albert Pujols, currently the best hitter in the game (if not necessarily the best all-around player), play for anyone else.

*

Now that that's out of the way, in honor of pitchers and catchers having reported, and the Top 10 Yankee Pitchers having been done yesterday, here are...

Top 10 Yankee Catchers

This will be a considerably shorter list. And that's a good thing, since it reflects the luck and longevity the Yankees have had with their catchers.

10. Jake Gibbs, 1962-71. The best quarterback the University of Mississippi has ever had -- at least, the best one not named Manning -- he chose baseball because he could make more money. But he didn't get more than a cup of coffee in the majors until 1966 and was only the starter in '67 and '68.

He probably would have been better off if he'd gone to the NFL -- or the AFL, which was a possibility at the time. He was drafted by the NFL's Cleveland Browns and the AFL's Houston Oilers. Still, somebody has to round out the Top 10.

9. Rick Cerone, on and off 3 times 1980-90. Brought in from the Toronto Blue Jays for Chris Chambliss in order to replace Thurman Munson, he helped the Yankees win the AL East in 1980 (he actually finished 7th in the MVP voting) and the Pennant in '81. But that was it, and he never again had more than 300 plate appearances in a season.

I remember listening to Max Kinkel's All Night Radio show on WCBS-FM one night in 1987 (it was a music show, but he talked about sports a lot), and he was talking to someone about the Yankees, ripping Mark Salas, saying, "To me, Salas just could not call a game." The caller said that Cerone, then in his 2nd go-around, could, and Max said, "Well, Cerone can call a game, but Cerone can't throw the ball!"

After his playing career, which also included a stopover with the Mets, Cerone, a Newark native and a graduate of Seton Hall University, was one of the founders of the reborn Newark Bears minor-league team.

8. Joe Girardi, 1996-99. Speaking of the Mets, as we all know, in nearly 50 years, no Met pitcher has ever thrown a no-hitter. But a few Mets-to-be and lots of former Mets have. Girardi caught 2 such no-hitters, by Dwight Gooden in 1996 and David Cone in 1999.

He was also one of the cornerstones of the Yanks' 1996 revival, including a triple off Greg Maddux that started a 3-run rally that won Game 6 of the World Series and the Series itself. Considering that he was known for his defense, usually capable of 40-50 RBI per year but no more than that, and that he was built like the stereotypical old-time catcher and not expected to run well (though he did steal 13 bases in '96), I said at the time that hitting a triple off Maddux in the World Series was the baseball equivalent of Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson.

He guided the Yanks' pitching staff until Jorge Posada was ready, and it surprised no one when he became a big-league manager. He kept a Florida Marlins team starved of payroll near .500 most of the 2006 season, got the NL Manager of the Year award, and got fired for his trouble.

Named Yankee manager in 2008, he led them to the 2009 World Championship, and, with the retirements of Joe Torre, Lou Piniella and Bobby Cox, is up there with Tony LaRussa and Mike Scioscia as one of the game's most repsected managers.

7. Mike Stanley, 1992-95. At first, it looked like he was going to be a big part of the Yanks' 1990s revival, batting .305 with 24 homers and 85 RBIs for the 1993 squad that hung close to the Blue Jays until mid-September. He hit .300 again in strike-shortened '94 and made the All-Star Team in '95.

But he was granted free agency, and the Yankees didn't lift a finger to re-sign him, a move that left some Yankee Fans (like me) quite puzzled, and some very angry. The Red Sox jumped at the chance, and he gave them a very solid season and much of another before a rare trade between the teams briefly brought him back in 1997. (The trade was ultimately a wash, the only other player worth mentioning being Tony Armas Jr., who the Sox soon put in the trade that brought in Pedro Martinez from the Montreal Expos.)

The Yanks may have known what they were doing, though: They got Girardi, they had Posada on the way up, and while Stanley was still productive until 2000 (he then retired at age 37), Girardi was a little younger, Posada considerably so.

6. Wally Schang, 1921-25. He came up with the Philadelphia Athletics in time to play in the 1913 and '14 World Series, winning the former. But Connie Mack's breakup of his dynasty sent him to the Red Sox in 1917, where he won another Series in 1918. Harry Frazee's breakup of his dynasty meant that Schang was one of those who, in large measure, made the 1921-28 Yankees an extension of the 1912-18 Red Sox.

He helped the Yankees win their 1st 3 Pennants and their first World Series in 1923. Schang batted .300 6 times, but only twice with the Yankees. Trading him to the St. Louis Browns in 1926 looks like a bad trade, but they got a pretty good pitcher for him, George Mogridge.

Oddly, the "Murderer's Row" Yankees of 1926, '27 and '28 did not have a solid player at catcher, the most important position on the field. (An oddity unmatched in sports until the Chicago Bulls won 6 NBA Championships in the 1990s despite their centers being the good, but hardly great, Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley.) Pat Collins, Mike Gazella, Benny Bengough... these were not good players, but the Yanks managed to win 2 World Series, very nearly 3, with them behind the plate until Bill Dickey became the full-time catcher in 1929.

Schang wrapped up his career with the Detroit Tigers in 1931, and that's the only season that he wore a uniform number. Interestingly, it was the number that Bill Dickey was already making synonymous with Yankee catchers, 8.

5. Elston Howard, 1955-67. Why so low? Actually, due to Yogi already being there, Elston, the first black Yankee, was mainly the Yankees' starting left fielder until 1959. But then he became the best catcher in the game. He was the first black man to win the AL's MVP award, in 1963 -- this after several had won it in the NL. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were hurt much of that season, and Elston carried that team, helping Whitey Ford win 24 games and young Jim Bouton win 21.

With the Yankee dynasty having collapsed, Elston was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1967, and helped them win their "Impossible Dream" Pennant. It's a very strange thing to look at that World Series highlight film and see Ellie in a Red Sox uniform, standing with Roger Maris in a Cardinal uniform.

In 1969, he returned to the Yankees as the AL's first black coach. His death due to a heart ailment in 1980 probably prevented him, at the rate George Steinbrenner was hiring and firing, from becoming New York's first black manager, a distinction that would later go to Willie Randolph with the Mets. The Yankees have still never had a black manager, but they retired Ellie's Number 32 and dedicated a Plaque to him in Monument Park.

4. Thurman Munson, 1969-79. In 1970, his 1st full season, he won the AL's Rookie of the Year. In 1976, he won the MVP. Thanks to Derek Jeter having been robbed in both 1999 and 2009, Thurman remains the only Yankee ever to win both of those awards. (There was no ROY until 1947, denying guys like Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio, and Mantle's 1st season was troubled.)

In spite of injury after injury, the first man trusted with the Yankees' official Captaincy since Lou Gehrig put together 3 straight seasons, 1975-77, of at least a .300 batting average and 100 RBIs. That streak ended in '78, but he made up for it by leading the team to its 3rd straight Pennant and back-to-back World Championships.

The thing I love the most about Thurman is that, at the moment when the Yankees most needed a home run from him, he hit the longest home run of his career. It was Game 3 of the '78 ALCS, bottom of the 8th, trailing 4-3 to the Kansas City Royals, and Doug Bird hung a curveball, and Thurman sent it 470 feet into Monument Park.

Sadly, the next person enshrined in Monument Park would be Thurman himself, the victim of a plane crash on August 2, 1979. George Steinbrenner, his fellow native of the Cleveland area, immediately ordered the retirement of his Number 15 (which had also been worn by Yankee greats Red Ruffing, Tommy Henrich and Tom Tresh), and a year later his Plaque was ready.

3. Jorge Posada, 1995-present. There are those who say that Posada isn't a very good catcher. Many of those will say that Mike Piazza of the Mets and Jason Varitek of the Red Sox were better. These people are fools.

Jorge is a legend. He caught David Wells' perfect game in 1998. He hits from both sides of the plate with power. He hits home runs in World Series games. His double ended the big 3-run rally that tied up Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS and set up Aaron Boone's Pennant-winning homer. He's raised a bundle of money for charity. And he's married to Laura Posada. This last factor cannot be discounted in discussing Jorge's greatness. He will get a Plaque in Monument Park, and if any later Yankee ever wears Number 20, it will be a crime. (Sorry, Bucky Dent.)

2. Bill Dickey, 1928-46. He took the title of "greatest catcher ever" away from Mickey Cochrane, and was, unusual for a catcher, one of the 10 best hitters in baseball. He was not on the roster of the 1928 World Series, but he helped the Yankees win 8 Pennants (1932, '36, '37, '38, '39, '41, '42 and '43) and 7 World Series (losing only in '42).

He was Lou Gehrig's best friend on the team, and played himself in The Pride of the Yankees. That scene where a teammate questions Gehrig's effort, not realizing that ALS is overtaking him, and Dickey punches the guy out? That really happened.

After Gehrig's illness-forced retirement in 1939, there was no official Yankee Captain until Munson, 37 years later. But Dickey was very much an unofficial captain, leading the Yankees to their 106-win season in '39, leading them through the Joe DiMaggio streak season of '41, and taking them to the '43 title when several players, including DiMaggio, Tommy Henrich and Phil Rizzuto, were off fighting World War II. (Dickey himself went into the service for the next 2 seasons.)

He came back in '46, briefly replaced Joe McCarthy as manager, and was one of Casey Stengel's coaches from 1949 to '60. His greatest accomplishment may actually have been making Yogi Berra an even better catcher than himself: As Yogi said, "Bill Dickey is learning me all his experiences."

1. Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, 1946-63. It's hard to look at Dickey's stats and say Yogi was better, but Dickey played in a hitter-friendly era, while Yogi played in a pitcher-friendly era. He won 3 AL MVPs, 1951, '54 and '55. Somebody once argued that, due to his hitting and handling a pitching staff that was constantly changing and yet constantly winning, Yogi might be the most valuable player the Yankees have ever had.

And, like Dickey, Yogi became sort of an unofficial captain, particularly from 1956, when Rizzuto was unceremoniously and callously released, and 1961, when new manager Ralph Houk began to insist that Mantle take more of a leadership role -- not as a slap against Yogi, but more in order to make Mickey finish growing up, and it wasn't entirely a fool's errand.

Nobody won more Pennants than Yogi: 14 (1947, '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '55, '56, '57, '58, '60, '61, '62, '63 and '64). Nobody won more World Series: 10 (1947, '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '56, '58, '61 and '62 -- in all of sports, only Bill Russell in basketball and Henri Richard in hockey have 11). He still holds the records for most World Series games, at-bats and hits.

In 1972, Yogi was elected to the Hall of Fame. Dickey had been elected in 1955. Upon Yogi's election, the Yankees retired Number 8 for both men. (Dickey wore 33 as a coach while Yogi was the catcher.) In 1988, both men were awarded Plaques in Monument Park.

And Yogi was a good manager: He got the Yankees to the 1964 Pennant, and the Mets to the 1973 Pennant. Not only did he have to make both teams come from behind in the process, but it made him the only manager ever to take both teams to the World Series. (I will Broadway Joe Namath guarantee you that there will never be another in my lifetime.) He lost in Game 7 both times, but there's no shame in losing a World Series to Bob Gibson and Lou Brock -- or to Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter, for that matter.

Today, people my age and younger know Yogi only as an elder statesman of baseball and as the guy who says funny things, often in TV commercials. They're not old enough to remember him as a manager, let alone as a player. But he was one of the true greats of the game, well before he became known for his "Yogi-isms."